Once again, I almost puked a little into my mouth. He also didn’t see the irony in what he just said about his “loving” family. But with that, all attention was on him and his application at UT Austin. I finally found something to be thankful for when Claire complained how it was too far away for him to commute from home. When I learned that “too far away” was in actuality just roughly two hours of driving, I simply closed my eyes and waited for them to be done with it.
Dinner after that was like usual. I answered when directly spoken to, mostly by Danielle and John, but didn’t want to engage much more. Until Danielle started her next scheme.
“So, any plans for Ava’s birthday?” she asked nobody specifically.
“Oh, nothing special, yet. I’ll probably just meet up with a few friends.” Ava answered.
“We’ll make it special, like always.” added Logan, squeezing her leg again.
“Must be a pain if your birthday is so close to the Holidays.” Danielle specified.
So that was what she was planning. Hinting at someone else who was born even closer to a Holiday than Ava, namely Thanksgiving, who’s birthday they forgot about. I gave her an angry look and, to her credit, she looked a little embarrassed seeing it. What the hell was she trying to accomplish? Did she not pay attention to how the rest of the evening had played out so far? Luckily, or not, my being was so far removed from their minds, they never made the connection. So, John tried yet another angle.
“Tim! Tell me, why a Jeep as your first car?” he asked, with clear emphasis on ‘first car’. I suspected he wanted to hint at the fact that the first cars my two siblings had, were gifts for their sixteenth birthdays. I thought about throwing my turkey at him, but I could use this opportunity to, at least partly, refute Logan’s claims about me wanting to compensate for a small dick.
“Wasn’t really looking for a Jeep specifically.” I answered quickly before Logan could inject himself into the conversation, to which I heard Grandpa let out an approving “Hmph”. “I needed a car to get to work but didn’t really know what else for. So, something cheap and maybe fun. That’s what I looked for.”
“What did you do about insurance?” Aaron asked. “I sure don’t remember you asking me to put you on our plan?”
“I insured it.” I said, matter of fact, not pointing out how he co-signed without even realizing it.
“Yourself? Well, that’s a relief!” he laughed while looking at his wife, the topic clearly settled for him.
“And why is that a ‘relief’, Aaron?” Danielle asked him with a forced smile, and just a smidge of irritation in her voice.
“Your girl doesn’t have a car yet, Danny, so you wouldn’t know. Paying for those two’s insurances already costs us a small fortune. If he can take care of that himself, I’m all for independence!” he proclaimed. “How much is yours?” he added, looking at me.
“Little under $500 per month.” I answered, to which Maggie almost spat out her food.
“You’re paying FIVE HUNDRED dollars every MONTH! And that’s just for the insurance?! Mom and Dad said, since I don’t really need the car, I’d have to pay for it myself. Why is it so expensive!?” she asked, losing control of her voice’s volume.
“That’s actually cheap. I got a day-long defensive driving course through work. That knocks ten percent off for a year. I’ll have to do one again next year to keep the discount.”
“You’re shitting me!” she commented, earning herself a resounding “Language!” from Grandma.
“Wait!” Aaron shouted, pointing at my siblings but looking at me. “We could save twenty percent off their insurance if we send these two to one of those courses!?”
“That’s ... not at all how Math works, but sure, you could save ten percent on each insurance.” I sighed under my breath, which actually caused John to suppress a laugh.
“John, could you ask Bill if he’d get them one of those courses too?” Aaron asked, completely ignoring my comment.
The conversation became a little chaotic after that, since Princess and Golden Boy were anything but eager to spend an entire day being told how to drive carefully. But John’s attempt to point at my missed birthday had completely derailed.
It’s hard to explain, but I truly believe that, if they were asked for it, they could provide my birthdate. As far as I knew, at least Claire was present when it happened, being my mother and all. They simply didn’t think about me
Whatever Uncle John and Aunt Danielle wanted to achieve that evening by repeatedly putting me on the spot, by the end of dinner, they had given up.
Aunt Danielle kept glancing at me with worried looks, but I was only thinking about how to make my escape. The opportunity arose when my phone got a push notification from the company server, notifying me about a bounced email. I could see from the notification itself that someone just mistyped the email address, but they couldn’t.
